Make Family Health History a Tradition
Introduction
Thanksgiving will be here in just a few weeks (or you could say the holiday season depending on when the class is taught) and we’ll soon be spending time with our families and enjoying – or in some cases preparing – a feast of mashed potatoes and gravy, buttery rolls, a golden-brown turkey, and let’s not forget the pumpkin pies! Not to mention the holiday shopping and yummy treats from neighbors and friends. It’s the time of year when we think about the things we are grateful for.
Tell about one of your own Thanksgiving Day traditions. Use visual aids such as a pie dish, china plate, silverware, pumpkin, etc to help generate ideas. Then ask the class…
- What are some of your family traditions at Thanksgiving? What memories do you have as a child or even with your own children or grandchildren at this time of year?
We each have wonderful traditions but did you know that learning about your family health history could be the most important tradition you make this Thanksgiving?
What is family health history?
Many of us are probably familiar with family history or genealogy but have you ever thought about your family’s health history? A family health history is more than just your genetics. Families also share their environments, lifestyles, and habits or behaviors. Even things like our cultures, support systems, religious beliefs, and other traditions can be important clues in our family health history. These risk factors may affect your tendency to develop a health problem. We’ve learned in previous classes that many health problems, like diabetes, asthma, cancer, and heart disease, can be caused by both our genes and lifestyles.
Some families have health problems that “tend to run in the family.” Chronic health problems like heart disease, stroke, asthma, cancer, and diabetes can run in families. Even things like depression, Alzheimer’s disease, or pregnancy problems can affect several members of a family. When close family members have the same health problem or develop a problem at a younger age than expected, this can increase other family members’ risk of developing the problem too. Keep in mind that your family members may know they or someone else in your family has a health problem. But they may not know that this could mean other family members may be at an increased risk to develop the same health problem. But the good news is, by learning about your family health history, you can make healthy choices to lower your risk.
Why is family health history important?
Ask the class to stand up. Then tell class participants to sit down if they have/had or have a family member with heart disease. Keep asking class participants to sit down as you say health problems that have affected either themselves or one of their family members until everyone in the room is sitting down. Possible health problems to say are diabetes, cancer, asthma, arthritis, depression, stroke, etc.
As we can see from our activity, family health history affects each of us. Everyone has a family health history of something!
The United States Surgeon General, Dr. Richard H. Carmona, said, “Knowing your family health history can save your life. The earlier you know which health conditions run in your family, the easier it is to develop prevention plans with your doctor”. But can family health history really save your life? Let’s listen to three families in Utah (names have been changed) whose lives have been affected by their family health history.
- Harrison family video clip (Play DVD, audio tape, or do a reader’s theatre page 7)
- Amanda Smith story (Ask a class participant to read the story page 5)
- Sue Johnson family story (Ask a class participant to read the story page 6)
After these three examples are shown/read, ask the class…
- How did these stories make you feel? Why was family health history important to these families? Does anyone have any personal stories they would like to share about how family health history has affected their lives? (Let the class share examples as time permits)
How do I get started?
As we’ve learned, not only can a family health history be life-saving for some families, but learning about your family health history can be fun too. But how do we get started with collecting our own family health history? It only takes three simple steps: 1) talk about it, 2) write it down, and 3) share it with your doctor and family!
We have developed a Family Health History Toolkit to help you go through these three easy steps. Included in the toolkit is a Health Family Tree that we also talked about. Please feel free to take a toolkit with you after the presentation. When you get together with your family this Thanksgiving, use the toolkit to help you talk about your family health history. Write down what you learn and share it with your doctor and family members. Try some of the fun ideas listed on your handout. Work with your children and grandchildren to gather this information and put it on your Health Family Tree.
Step 1 – Talk about it
When collecting a family health history, gather information on close family members such as your children, parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. You can even try to gather information on your cousins or nieces and nephews. Remember that unlike genealogy where you try to learn about as many generations as you can, three generations is the magic number for a family health history. Things that are important to collect about your family members include:
- Age when the health problem started or was diagnosed. This is very important for understanding if your family may have an increased risk or chance to develop a health problem. The younger someone is when they develop a health problem, the more likely other family members are at risk. If you don’t know the exact age when your family member started having a health problem, try to guess the approximate age or year.
- Age and cause of death for family members who have died. Since many of you already enjoy genealogy, this information can be found at the same time you are doing genealogy research. Death certificates, funeral home records, and obituaries all contain information about the cause or causes of death as well as the date and age of death. If there is more than one cause of death listed, write this down.
- Lifestyle habits. Remember that many common health problems like asthma, diabetes, and heart disease can be caused by both genetics and lifestyle or behavior choices. Families often have similar lifestyle habits when it comes to things like exercise habits, weight (both overweight and extreme underweight), and diet habits. Even whether or not a family member smoked or currently smokes can impact your family’s health. Because lifestyle habits are an important part of your family health history, you should strive to make healthy choices if a health problem tends to run in your family. But no matter what your family health history is, everyone can lower their risk for developing a health problem, no matter what your age, by eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, exercising regularly, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight.
- Ethnic background. For some health problems, a person’s ethnic background can increase their risk of developing a disease.
If you need ideas for how to get your family talking about these things, you can use the Family Health History Toolkit and the 10 Questions to Ask Your Family at Thanksgiving fact sheet.
Step 2 – Write it down
Give a demonstration of the Health Family Tree tool. The presenter should come prepared with their own Health Family Tree tool or an example of what it will look like when it is filled out. Walk the class through the directions explained below:
Each box on the Health Family Tree should be used for one family member. Start with the box labeled “You” and fill out your personal health history. Then fill out a box for your brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Try to fill out each box as much as you can. If you don’t know if a family member had the health problem, mark “Not Sure”. Write down the age when the problem started, even a guess is better than leaving it blank. This is called the “Age at first diagnosis.” If you find health problems that run in your family are not listed, write them down anyway.
Encourage the class to write down their family health history even if they don’t want to use the Health Family Tree tool. They could write a chapter in their personal history, write a letter to their family members about their family health history, or even include information about family health history in their scrapbooks or memory books. Share the ideas listed on the handout and toolkit with class participants or ask them how they can record this important and valuable information for generations to come.
Step 3 – Share it with your family members and doctor
Sharing your family health history with your family members is very important. After all why go to all the trouble collecting your family health history if you aren’t going to share it with them? Your children and grandchildren will enjoy learning about their family members and will be grateful to have this information to make health care decisions with. And as we’ve heard from several Utah families and class participants, knowing your family health history can literally save lives. Your family needs to know about health problems that run in your family so they can make healthy choices regarding lifestyle and screening tests. If you are concerned about your family health history, share what you have learned with your doctor. Your doctor can help you understand your risk or your family members’ risk for developing a health problem. Your doctor can also make recommendations about lifestyle choices and screening tests that can detect health problems early and lower your risk of developing them.
Conclusion
Learning about your family health history can not only be life-saving for your family, but fun too. As you get together with your family on Thanksgiving Day or during the holiday season, make family health history a tradition!
Please fill out the evaluation forms. Your feedback is valuable to us and will help us ensure we are providing families with information that is useful and fun.
Amanda Smith Story
For Amanda Smith of North Salt Lake, learning about her family health history was more than just a hobby, it saved her life. It began in 2002 when Amanda’s mother suffered a stroke at the age of 61. Her mother had shown symptoms of stroke including dizziness, slurred speech, confusion, and facial sagging. The stroke was caused by a heart defect and blood clotting disorder that can run in families, which together can be deadly.
Shortly after her mother’s stroke, Amanda, her husband and eight-month old daughter returned from London after visiting her parents. When they arrived home Amanda began to feel dizzy. The next day she couldn’t say words with the letter “S”. Her jaw felt out of alignment. Then, at the grocery store, she couldn’t sign her name on the credit card receipt. She remembered her mother’s symptoms and freaked out because she knew she had had a stroke. Amanda was twenty-four. Amanda immediately went to a doctor at a nearby clinic who dismissed the problem as jetlag. She insisted with her recent family history of stroke that something was wrong. Many tests later, Amanda learned she had suffered a stroke and had the same heart defect and blood clotting disorder as her mother. And to make things even more complicated, Amanda learned to her surprise that she was expecting another child. Terrified and scared that she and her baby wouldn’t survive, Amanda endured surgery to repair her heart. Nine months later, Amanda gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl, a true miracle baby.
Amanda recalls, “My mom’s problem was a gift because they would have never looked for that in me. The only thing you have control over in your family health history is to empower yourself enough to be aware of what you’re potentially at risk of so you can recognize the symptoms or prevent the disease from occurring.”
Sue Johnson Story
Sue Johnson’s husband Rex died at the young age of 52 from massive hereditary heart disease. Despite the fact that her husband Rex had a family history of early heart disease, his condition went undetected until his death. When he died, the doctor told Sue that his heart disease probably started when he was in his twenties but nothing was done about it until it was too late. If Rex and his doctor would have been more aware of his family health history, surgery could have been performed that would have lessened his chances of dying at such a young age.
Now Sue worries her four children may be at an increased risk of developing heart disease, too. After Rex died, their doctor explained to her children that this particular type of heart disease could be inherited. The doctor warned her children to not smoke or drink and to have annual check-ups with their doctors. Talking about their family health history and father’s death would be critical for their own health care decisions in the future.
She doesn’t want her children to have to go through another tragedy and so encourages each of them to get an annual physical, not smoke, eat right, and exercise. Sue also reminds them of the importance of sharing their family health history with their doctor and family members.
“We each need to be aware of our family health history and be responsible for ourselves. Maybe if my husband would had done this and been more aggressive, my four children would still have a dad,” Sue said.
Harrison Family Story
Family health history has the potential to save countless lives. Especially for those families with inherited high cholesterol. This is a story of the Harrison family, a Utah family who understands the importance of knowing their family health history. Dr. Roger Williams was an instrumental figure not only in Utah but across the world in getting people to know their family health history. These excerpts are taken from a documentary on Dr. Roger Williams who was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1998. The Harrison family was one of the families Dr. Williams worked with and this is their tribute to him and their personal story.
Julie Harrison is the mother. Rob and Tom are her sons. Deb is Tom’s wife. Dr. Roger Williams’ wife is also a part of the story.
1. Julie: FH or familial hypercholesterolimia (high cholesterol) runs in families in such that half of the children usually inherit the gene. In our family mom and dad had 5 children. Three of us have high cholesterol, two don’t at all. In my family, I have six children. Three of my children have it and three don’t. The first time I realized I had it was when Dr. Roger Williams called one day and said June I’d like to have you bring your family in and let’s check your blood.
2. Rob: It’s not that we’re in pain. It’s like a booby trap ready to spring on you. You don’t know when it’s going to happen. My grandfather died when he was young. My father died, three of my uncles died in their forties.
3. Tom: I think the worst time my cholesterol was about 600 so it was way up there.
4. Deb: I don’t know if people realize what we go through everyday because everyday we worry. I remember Tom saying I’m going to play hard now because I’m never going to live to see retirement. There’s never a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about his death and about how it’s affected his life. He said if ever any burden could be taken off his shoulders it would be his cholesterol problem.
5. Dr. Roger Williams’ wife: The pay came when we received a letter from a man who was holding his first grandbaby. And for generations they had never lived to see their grandchildren. And he was able to hold his grandbaby and he wrote a letter saying that Roger was the reason he was able to hold and see a grandchild. That his father had never had that opportunity nor his grandfather, for generations that they had always died before a grandchild could be born.